


TOW He Really Tried

by miscnine



Series: "Ris, Write More" Challenge [2]
Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Bad Cooking, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Fluff, he didn't even make it to cooking, joey shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen with cooking intentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23291053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miscnine/pseuds/miscnine
Summary: Joey just wanted to do something nice for the others, but the jam decided to wage war on the rest of inhabitants of the fridge.But, yeah, kitchen disaster. That's it.
Relationships: Chandler Bing/Joey Tribbiani
Series: "Ris, Write More" Challenge [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1521635
Comments: 7
Kudos: 115





	TOW He Really Tried

“Thank you so much, Joey.” Monica smiled at the man. “I would pick all those boxes up myself, but I really got to run. Don’t want to be late for work. Anyway, after that, you know the drill.”

“I got it, Mon.” Joey waved her out of the apartment, leaning back on the couch. “I won’t eat all your food. I won’t make much of a mess. I won’t go into your room. And I won’t burn down the apartment.” 

Behind Joey, Chandler made an “eh, sorta” movement with his hand.

“Do not burn down the apartment, I swear to God.” Monica sighed, adjusting her bag strap on her shoulder.

“Relax.” Chandler laughed. 

“Okay, I really have to go. Bye, boys!” Monica waved then shut the door.

“Sometimes, she really reminds me of my mom.” Joey commented, thoughtfully.

“Yeah?” Chandler stood and went to get his briefcase on the table.

“It’s high time you met my parents too, actually. You know, as my boyfriend. Thanksgiving is coming up.” Joey followed suit.

“Thanksgiving, huh?” Chandler leaned on the table and faced Joey. 

“Uh huh.” Joey adjusted his boyfriend’s shirt collar and ran his hands down the man’s chest without purpose. “And I know this is  _ something _ to you, so we’ll talk about it when you get home.”

“It sounds great, I promise.” Chandler stared intently at him. “It shouldn’t be a big deal. Our friends know.”

However, Joey stared back at him knowingly and just as intently and shook his head with a small smile. “We’ll talk about it when you get home.”

Chandler spent some time just looking at him before nodding. “Okay. Yeah.”

Chandler went in for a kiss which Joey insistently prolonged a minute more than Chandler intended it to last.

“I have to get to work, Joe.” Chandler grinned, wrinkling his eyes.

Joey hummed. “Go make a difference, Mr. Bing.”

They walked to the front door and shared another kiss. Chandler finally opened the door to leave.

“Hey, don’t forget you have to pick up those boxes downstairs for Monica.”

“How could I when I’m standing in her apartment?” Joey chuckled. “You got everything with you?”

“I think so, yes.” Chandler fumbled to check his pockets anyway.

“Call me, then. I hope you have a good day at work.”

“You too. Bye.” Chandler held Joey’s hand until he couldn’t, to which he settled for smiling at him until he was too far away.

Joey couldn’t bring himself to stop smiling long after his lover has gone, even though he admits he was one of the people who found couples in their honeymoon phase disgustingly sweet. He didn’t think they'd quit being this disgusting, seeing as they kind of went through all the other phases before they even got together and they’re now mature enough to settle things before they become issues. Things are easy when it’s him and Chandler.

He shut the front door behind himself and climbed down the stairs to get started on lugging all six boxes to his friends’ apartment. Luckily, he didn’t have any gigs set for today. Maybe he could prepare something special for the others.

* * *

Chandler quietly exited the office building. 

Since his promotion, his life has been relatively peaceful and less hectic; he was given an office that was separate from people  he’d failed to impress by people he did impress. His supervisors liked that he worked diligently, which worked out well because  _ he _ liked working diligently. The others clearly didn’t like him, but that didn’t matter much because they didn’t matter. Also, it was part of the promotion that he had better hours, so he saw less of their faces and more of the faces of people he actually loved. 

He strode down the street and stopped at a pastry shop for two boxes of donuts. Joe always appreciated more food.

He had finally come home to their apartment to find that Joey wasn’t there. He knew that meant the man was at Monica and Rachel’s shared apartment so there was no rush. He set aside his things and placed a box of donuts in their refrigerator, then changed into more comfortable clothes. He didn’t bother locking their door when he left for the girls’ apartment.

He swung the door open to--

“Quite a view, honey.” Chandler said, staring at his boyfriend who was hunched over, trying to clean up the huge mess with a roll of newspapers, a rug, and a garbage bag.

“Oh, hi, sweetheart! Welcome back.” Joey’s sweet smile quickly turned into a scowl. “Now fucking help me.”

“Ohh-kay.” Chandler deposited the box of donuts on the counter then walked to the open fridge where everything happened.

“Are those donuts?” Joey perked up, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and quickly left the mess to eat some donuts. The action gave Chandler a perfect view of the  _ result of what _ had happened. Didn’t quite answer the _ how _ .

The fridge gave the warning beeps that it was still open. 

“Can you tell me what happened or do I just assume the contents of Mon and Rach’s fridge revolutionized static warfare?”

Joey sighed and lowered the donut, pouting a little. “So I brought all the boxes up, right? Then I realized you’re all busy, hard at work and everything, so I thought it’d be nice if you all  came here to something. I figured I had a lot of time so I watched some TV for a while until it got boring. Then…”

“Then?”

“And then I realized I could quite literally only make sandwiches so I was pretty discouraged. But! I at least wanted to make sandwiches you’d all like. Like… the mozzarella-tomato one for the Gellers… grilled cheese for you and Phoebe… beef bagel for me and Rachel. So yeah.”

“You left out the part the jam launched a missile attack on the mustard collection with a plate of leftover Chinese.” Chandler smugly pointed out. 

Joey groaned and pouted, inciting the small smile on Chandler’s face. “I might have dropped a couple things on a couple things and broke a couple things.”

Chandler laughed at the understatement. He then assumed a military/commentator voice, to which Joey smiled fondly at while rolling his eyes. “Alright. Game plan: finish cleaning up the mess, watch more TV, and just give the other box of donuts to the others; move out.”

“Nerd.”


End file.
